this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Amazon faces potential break-up as FTC finalizes antitrust lawsuit | The FTC is getting ready for the big one::undefined

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[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Damn this thread is negative as hell.

I’m one of the most cynical, pessimistic people I know, but not in here.

Kinda wish people’s first reaction were “good,” not “yeah right, remember Bell in the 80’s?”

Maybe I’m naive, but this seems like good news to me. Even if it doesn’t actually result in Amazon being broken up, at least it indicates someone is doing something.

“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress” or something like that.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress” or something like that.

Brings back memories to when Obamacare was announced. Did it go far enough? Hell no. It was a step in the right direction and it was still derided. Those who are ripping down the system brick by brick have a singular vision and understand it's a series of steps to get to their dystopian hellscape. Why are those primary on the left unwilling to accept anything that isn't a fully realized picture of their ideal society?

In fact I'd argue a large part of why the system is falling apart is those who want to see it improved are unwilling to do those small incremental changes for good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why are those primary on the left unwilling to accept anything that isn’t a fully realized picture of their ideal society?

Because at this point, it seems more like theater than actual intent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The right sure seems convinced we're hurtling leftward with communist dictators like Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden leading the charge with the tenacity of the Bolsheviks of yore. I'm guessing the reality is somewhere in between that and perennial fecklessness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

What came first, people checking out or the system stopping working for us? Or does it even matter?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Makes me think about how cynicism pervades online communities and media. Seems like a lot of people can't get themselves to hope. People need hope to accomplish anything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

People are becoming less and less able to be rationalized with.

A lot of valid triggers have put us here. Housing. Inflation. Income inequality. Identity politics. But it's gotten to the point where people are frothing at the mouth. Daily I see a comment about "eat the rich" and anecdotally they're getting more and more aggressive.

We are tipping toward bloodshed unless things change drastically soon which I doubt will happen.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think what people are tired of and endlessly pessimistic about is the baby steps of doing something never seems to end. It never gets to the other side of helping the people. People need to see the end goal of where the baby steps are trying to lead us AND see that the likes of Amazon are not able to move faster than those baby steps to nullify the steps.

A lot of the terminally online have been alive long enough to live through multiple examples of how theses kinds of things tend to work. And thus have to ask themselves "why will this time end any different?" Have to do that enough times and it makes you a jaded cynic.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Astroturfing. Amazon has PR teams that come here and sow seeds of "pff it doesn't even matter" in order to make people cynical and complacent.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeeaah nah, I can absolutely promise you that Amazon PR isn't wasting their time trying to make a few hundred thousand Lemmy users apathetic lol. This is such a crazy level of paranoia

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling Lemmings!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Repeat after me: amazon deserves to be broken up!

Also I think amazon is responsible for a measurable spike in inflation

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I highly doubt that. Regular people have no real ability to effect the outcome, and the majority of people are saying “there’s no way this absolutely bullshit situation gets fixed” not “what is there to fix? Nothing is wrong!”

No company is paying their PR to say “Yeah [we] are real pieces of shit that need to be hacked up and thrown to the wind but [we] are gonna come out of this just fine so suck our cocks.”

That isn’t how PR works. At least not till they hit dictator levels of power.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

PR people aren't stupid. They know how to muddy the water and make efforts like this seem unimportant because it prevents people from galvanizing. Its the divide and conquer strategy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Progress needs actual progress though, a lot of progressive regulation is put up with absolutely no chance (or intention imo) of going through. It's a bunch of tech regulators with no idea how the tech works throwing out drastic proposals to look heavy handed and tough, because that's what people want to see.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Even if it doesn’t actually result in Amazon being broken up, at least it indicates someone is doing something.

Aren't they just deciding whether or not to do something via the lawsuit rather than actually for sure doing something yet? ~Strawberry

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely. we need a lot more of this too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is funny, because I literally said “good!” when I read the post title. So I’m right there with you.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Absolutely straight, we need a lot more of this too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Shitting yourself is not better than doing nothing.